Letter; Kristin Jones, Ashburn

Editor: When it comes to Virginia House of Delegates representative Del. Thomas “Tag” Greason’s (R-32ndDistrict) voting record on guns, he is no moderate. In 2012, he helped repeal Virginia’s one gun per month law, on the books since 1993, to once again allow gun runners to move firearms along the “Iron Pipeline.” The Iron Pipeline is the route used to smuggle weapons from southern states with less restrictive gun laws to states with tougher gun laws, like New York and New Jersey.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2013, he supported legislation forcing Virginia agencies to refuse cooperation with federal gun laws and firearm investigations. Greason voted to recognize out-of-state concealed handgun permits even from states having looser restrictions than Virginia’s. He also voted to make it easier to purchase grenades, machine guns and rocket launchers. Why?

As a constituent, I wanted to speak with him about these votes, but he refused to meet with me twice. Maybe he just wasn’t in the office the days I wanted to meet with him. After all, he has missed 713 votes in the House of Delegates since he began serving in 2010.

In any case, the positions he’s taken on firearm measures in Virginia do not represent the moderate district he serves. It’s time to stop giving politicians a pass on their support of the gun lobby. We cannot afford to have state lawmakers who so cavalierly execute the gun lobby’s extremist agenda. This is something to consider Nov. 7 when we head to the polls.

Perhaps you should look up the assertions before you play the “I’m so reasonable” card?

I did, and according to the LIS ( that would be Virginia’s legislative information system) the bill (written only 2 legislative cycles after Sandy Hook) was to speed the permitting of firearms, the definition of firearm being …. wait for it…

“The definition of “firearm” includes machine guns, rifles and shotguns of a certain length, weapons made from certain rifles or shotguns, silencers, and destructive devices.”

Look it up Dude.

Kristin left out of the best part of interest to Loudoun voters. Not only did ‘Tug, hand me the kleenex’ Greason vote for the bill it’s sponsor was none other than every teabaggers favorite Dave ‘I bred a very large family look at their picture’ LaRock.

You can’t make this stuff up. Truth really is stranger than fiction eh?

Sure… Grenades eh? I saw Wal-Mart is running a two for one special on them.
Costco has some really great prices on rocket launchers too! Not the cheap ChiCom crap, but real deal stuff like AT-4s and 90mm Gustavs. Just in time for Christmas. And if you buy three they’ll throw in a M2 50 Cal machine gun for free!

That’s the story you’re trying to sell? Do you have any idea how absurd it sounds? That’s the bizarre implication and it does nothing but open your argument up to the ridicule it deserves.

In your minds, Virginians are supposed to have their civil liberties restricted for the action of a mentally disturbed kid who shot his mother while she was sleeping before attacking a school. That is somehow the fault of Virginians? Virginians have to pay. That’s what you folks believe, right? Forget logic, disregard reason, shed all cohesive thought — it just “feels good” to exert control over your innocent neighbors, correct? You’re pushing this charade in likely the highest density area of firearm ownership in the country.

AFF, I don’t know Del LaRock, nor have I ever seen his family. We can spar all day, but can we leave a man’s family out of it? Only the lowest bring someones kids into it, and you’re not low.

Below is the entire text of the bill in question: All it says is that the Chief Law Enforcement Officer (CLEO) must either deny or approve a citizens request for a NFA firearm within 30 days. Keep in mind, the sheriff has complete authority of yes or no.
Oh the horror of a public servant being required to do their job in a timely manner. The horror!

Anyone who actually knows anything about the NFA, how it works, and what’s required, knows you can not buy “grenades” or “rocket launchers.” So why make something up out of thin air? If your argument is so weak against the candidate it requires you to have to create make-believe, you should probably find another issues to fret about.

2014 SESSION

14104110D
HOUSE BILL NO. 878
AMENDMENT IN THE NATURE OF A SUBSTITUTE
(Proposed by the House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety
on January 17, 2014)
(Patron Prior to Substitute–Delegate LaRock)
A BILL to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 18.2-295.1, relating to law-enforcement certification of certain firearms.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. That the Code of Virginia is amended by adding a section numbered 18.2-295.1 as follows:

When a chief law-enforcement officer’s certification is required by federal law or regulation for the transfer of a firearm, the chief law-enforcement officer shall, within 30 days of receipt of the request for certification, provide such certification if the applicant is not prohibited by law from receiving the firearm. If the applicant is prohibited by law from receiving the firearm, the chief law-enforcement officer or his designee shall provide written notification to the applicant that states the reason for the prohibition.

For purposes of this section, “firearm” shall have the same meaning as provided in the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. § 5845 (a).

Kristin – I am not an NRA Member, or a gun expert, but own several guns. At this point, I feel compelled to join the many organization that market me due to the on-going idiocy of anti-gun nuts like you. It is obvious that the masses of liberals will stop at nothing until there is full gun confiscation. We have reciprocal CCW with over two dozen states, which our idiocy Governor tried a power move and rescind, which didn’t work too long! The grenade launchers you cite are used for flares. Try and get a military grade one as a citizen and check out the red tape. Ever see any planes taken down by one to date in our Country by a private citizen owning one? Did you know that I can very easily modify any of my rifles to be fully automatic, thus being a machine gun, if a truly wanted to. I don’t need a bump stock…. I am glad the AFF is so gun knowledgeable as so many liberals are. God forbid should I be harmed while trying to defend them and my weapon fall to the ground in front of them. They would be hopeless while trying to look up how to use said weapon.

You’re really trying this schtick on me? Like you said, I’m way better than this.

You and I both know that they’re certain types of weaponry we’ve long ago decided shouldn’t be available to the general public as they’ve got little use in self defense- automatic weapons, sawed off shotguns, grenade… I mean ‘flare’ launchers. This weaponry isn’t exactly illegal but is defacto made illegal by requiring permits and such that most reasonable people won’t grant to the general public.

Dave ‘I’m a breeder’ LaRock tried to weaken this protection and Tug signed off on it. Reasonable people don’t think weapons used for making war should be on our streets and most of us except for the gun nuts… I mean gun ‘enthusiasts’, are fine with someone slow walking the permitting process.

Considering what weaponry one can merely walk down to the gun shop, show an ID (kinda like when I buy sudafed ) and purchase daily (unlike sudafed because that would get me on watch lists and could very well lead to my door being kicked in by none other than Leesburg’s Finest) the weapons requiring special permits should require extra scrutiny.

For some reason this line of thought seemed to lead you to question why post Newtown I’d want to restrict a fine Virginian gun enthusiast as yourself from having guns? Yet LaRock’s bill was about expanding access to something you’ve never been allowed to have so I’m not really following your why do I think Virginians should pay for Newtown bit?

I think I brought up Newtown to point out how politically tone deaf LaRock and many republicans are to bring up legislation putting even more weapons on the street as mass shooter incidents multiply in the public consciousness. For a lot of people it’s pretty simple. More guns= more people getting shot.

But since you’re going there I’ll go ahead and say it. Newtown is a perfect example of why you, Chris Manthos shouldn’t be allowed to legally have a machine gun, or a flare launcher, or a sawed off shotgun. See, the thing is you, Adam Lanza, Nancy Lanza, and Stephen Paddock all have something in common. You guys are/were all gun enthusiasts and (bear with me.. I assume) your guns were legally purchased.

Nancy Lanza died without violating any gun laws. She was having such a fine time shooting and bonding with her sons, why shouldn’t she have been able to share the joy of shooting automatic weapons together? Why would anyone want to deny her this pleasure? What good reason could a Sheriff possibly have for denying her this pleasure and why shouldn’t he/ she have to approve or deny the permitting of such in 22 or so business days?

I’ll tell you why not- because it’s a freaking insane position. How quick do you want the process to be? The time it would take a small town cop to say “Supersize me”?

You might find pleasure shooting with your girls- each to his own. I’ve certainly shot with my family. But until you’re required to insure your weapons for the harm they might inflict on others I don’t want a machine gun in your house and I don’t care that Leesburg’s finest donut critic is willing to make one for you- let him. If you feel like that’s a restriction on your civil rights, so be it.

(as an aside, don’t you think calling yourself Leesburg’s Finest is akin to being the sweetest Kia in the used car lot?)

…. I digress.

The afore mentioned bill is bad law and most Virginians would agree with me. Dave most likely didn’t even write the bill as most of his submission are ALEC boilerplate.

I’d tell Dave myself, but he’s never around and refuses debate invitations during campaigns. Dude even skipped the 250th anniversary of the Goose Creek Meeting held last week. All I have to judge him by is his campaign mailers- many of which feature pictures of Dave and his large family. Hence the “Dave ‘I bred a very large family look at their picture’ LaRock” reference. I didn’t call them corn fed or ugly and I certainly didn’t “bring someone’s kids into it”- just the fact that I’ve repeated been exposed to their picture.

Can we agree that Dave likes to use family pictures in his campaign lit?

AFF, you are better than this — you usually base your disagreements on facts. Yet here, you’re devoid of them. This doesn’t sound like you.

At least you’re still not trying to imply people can purchase “grenades” and “rocket launchers.” Because that was ‘crazy train’ level talk. Like the letter above; Crazy, make-believe, ‘somebody believes in unicorns’, loosen your tin foil hat –That sort of thing. Glad to see you recognized it.
Neither the Lanza’s nor Paddock possessed automatic firearms. That is a fact.
If you read the most recent report on the Lanzas, you’ll see that he and his mother, living in the same house, only communicated via e mail for the three months leading up to the shooting. Mother of the year award, right?

I can buy all the “flare guns” I want. They sell them at boating supply shops, and of course on line. You already knew that.

I don’t own an automatic firearm. Can’t afford it, nor am I partial to giving up my 4th Amendment rights. Because that is exactly how strict NFA procedures are. Therefore, your case for ‘extra scrutiny’ has already been the case since 1934. I’m sure you know the overwhelming majority of short barreled shotguns and full autos are owned by law enforcement officers. The rest are owned by wealthy collectors who have complied with NFA. I am neither.

What I am, however, is the son of former law enforcement officers. Speaking poorly of the cops was deeply frowned upon, to say the least, in our home. You choose to be snarky about the police, and equate tens of thousands of gun owners in Loudoun with mass murderers, but it doesn’t help your cause if you’re wrong. And you’re wrong on the most basic facts of this issue, your neighbors, and the bill in question.

I’ve never seen Del. LaRock’s family. He’s not in my food chain. Show me a mailer that doesn’t show a candidate’s family. So what if he has a large family? I know plenty of people who have large families. Black, White, Hispanic, Catholics, Jewish, Protestants, Muslims, and then some. So what? Don’t tell me you’re into “people control” as well as gun control. That’s not you.

“Neither the Lanza’s nor Paddock possessed automatic firearms. That is a fact.”

Please show me where I claimed those cats had automatic weapons. I didn’t. I only drew the comparison between them, and you. That being- right up until those guys started shooting they were merely gun enthusiasts collecting and shooting guns for their own enjoyment. They all (and again I assume, you) bought their guns legally. That is a fact

“If you read the most recent report on the Lanzas, you’ll see that he and his mother, living in the same house, only communicated via e mail for the three months leading up to the shooting. Mother of the year award, right?”

Wow! You mean that if authorities had found out that the Lanza kid was full blown crazy they would have had records on all the guns in the house and rolled up and taken them away for safekeeping?

Yea, I can answer that for ya… of course there are no laws keeping guns out of households known to have mentally unstable people living in them, nor are there any gun registrations whatsoever. So save me the judgment as to Mrs Lanza’s choices for I know not what goes on in your house.. what you or anyone else considers ‘normal’ for their house.

All I know for sure is that Dave LaRock and his buddy Tug tried to expedite the process in which a household like the Lanzas had they lived in Virginia, could have machine guns.

AFF, you clearly imply they did. You can parse it out now, but even reading over it again, you make it sound as if they, and every other gun owner has a bevy of “machine guns” whispering to their owners. That’s simply not the case.

“Nancy Lanza died without violating any gun laws. She was having such a fine time shooting and bonding with her sons…”
In fact, Mrs. Lanza was not bonding with her kid in any way. According to reports, they were completely estranged. The kid was completely allowed to go to seed, enabled by pills and psychobabble from the Industrial mental health/big Pharma complex, seeking to mitigate parental control of offspring. In this case, it appears they extremely successful. While that’s a subject all on its own, it can’t be denied it wasn’t the main factor. Hopped up on pills from the government… How nice.

Actually AFF, Connecticut does indeed have ‘registration” and even requires “permission” from the state police to possess a self-loading rifle, and then some. They have all of the, gimmicks and bait & switch schemes we always have to endure hearing about from those who seek to impose their personal choices on their neighbors. And what did it get us? Pass any law you want to; but in the end, there are those who don’t care about the haughty, chest thumping, proclamations of politicians and their fringe billionaire supporters.

There is evil in the world, regardless of what people like you and me want. I will not, nor will others be held responsible for any act of criminals. It’s the exact same as you getting drunk at home watching football, and somehow me equating you to a drunk driver who takes out a family of six. You wouldn’t put up with that. Me neither.

Del. LaRock’s bill was about making sure public servants do their job in a timely manner. It didn’t loosen a single law, restriction, or rule. It said no more playing games. Poop or get off the pot. Approve the request, or deny it and explain the reason for the denial. It never made it easier to obtain anything.

What’s more, is you know it too. You claiming otherwise is worse than the ignorance of this letter writer, who is regurgitating the talking point falsehoods of a far left, billionaire funded, anti-civil rights group.

It’s fake. Make-believe. Outright falsehood. If you have a beef with Del. LaRock, them by all means hash it out. But do not make up stories about what he did or didn’t do. If you’re down to having to lie about a candidate, then you have a problem with your own candidate.

You kinda got into another topic- police accountability, so I separated the post. I seem to remember you writing a bit questioning the early releases of non-violent drug offenders?

At the time I wondered why you, an outspoken citizen against waste and government overreach and seemingly was in would be against long sentences for non-violent offenders. Especially considering the total lack of progress in terms of keeping drugs off the street 40 years in, not to mention are leading the world in both percentage of incarcerated citizens AND total number of imprisoned. Now I get it.

“What I am, however, is the son of former law enforcement officers. Speaking poorly of the cops was deeply frowned upon, to say the least, in our home.”

In my house (very conservative, neither ‘rent has ever pulled the lever for a D) we we taught to respect the law and to be polite to officers of the law. We were also taught to never let a cop past the front door and when possible, to avoid interacting with them. I’ve never broken bread with an LEO at a family table nor can I think of any in my large family circle who would have (Granny was notoriously hard on career military men- they were tolerated but not necessarily welcomed)

I’ve furthered the parents convictions and would add “think very carefully before you invite a heavily armed stranger who’s biggest priority is their own safety into your home”. Nowadays calling the police would be my option of last resort were a family member, loved one, or a neighbor having a mental crisis. 30 years ago I felt completely differently.

The cops of my youth carried themselves differently, they dressed differently. When was the last time you heard a cop referred to as a Peace Officer or an Officer of the Peace? Nowadays they dress like soldiers and talk about patrolling their sectors… Army talk.

I think one of the big shifts in both how police act and how police are perceived can be directly traced back to our most monumental failures of social policy to date- the war on drugs. I would think a retired LEO would have a hard time coming to terms with the futility of what had to be a large part of their job- arresting people for having drugs.

The Cato Institute used to have a good map of all the botched SWAT raids all over the country. Until recently they ran a website which compiled a daily list of police misconduct. I tried not to venture on to the site and the stories were too depressing. After all, when cops are demonstrated to be crooks and are rarely held accountable who can you trust?

The weirdest thing is that the anti-government types who rail against incompetent government employees or ‘jackbooted thugs dressed in black’ reserve criticism when those guys are cops. That sort of sentiment is reserved for the ATF or the BLM (granted, who probably have SWAT teams on the payroll)

On a local level police disfunction is pretty visible too. Have you ever read the comments of guys claiming to be LCSD employees? How about the fiasco currently coming to light in Purcellville? (after a lifetime of dealing with the PPD and after interacting with several of the officers who have filed claims against their new female Chief…. well, I want to hear her side of the story)

I get that most police are good people who want to help families, but this desire doesn’t mean they always contributed positively towards the neighborhoods they served.

AFF, Great split. Thanks. I did write highlighting the complete and total dysfunction between what we’re being lectured about (hard drug crisis) by polticans, and the direct actions of polticans on the back end.

The former President was a big talker on gun violence; but his actions were far different. Many of the criminals he released were not the “small time” actors we were led to believe. Many were felons in possession of a firearm. One had an illegal NFA firearm (a subject near and dear to your heart).
Another, Artis Sangria McGraw, of South Carolina was convicted of — “Possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine; use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence; felon in possession of a firearm; possession of a firearm with obliterated serial numbers. (A super big non-no). He’s out of prison now after doing only half his sentence. “Non-Violent” eh?

I used the Commutation list from the week of August 3rd 2016. Last I checked, Obama did 14 such Commutations, and all along the same level. So on one end, we’re lectured about how we need more restrictions on law-abiding people, yet at the very same time, these same self-righteous pols are emptying the prisons of violent gun/drug offenders. Big league people. Not some kid with an OZ.
These are Players of The Game.

And from the gun control squad…. Silence. Utter silence. Not a peep. Thus, why they have no standing to lecture me, or anybody else about anything. They are morally and intellectually bankrupt, all while being supported by control freak billionaires. (that’s why I can’t believe you fall for their crap)

I agree with you AFF — the “war on drugs” is for the most part a failure. I don’t have the answer anymore than anyone else. I agree there are too many small fish incarcerated on minor stuff. All that’s happening to them is they’re enrolled at Crime University. Again, I don’t have an answer. Decriminalization would help on some, but at the same time, I don’t want stoners driving around any more than I’ll accept drunks driving. No one does.

I too am disturbed by the shift in policing. I’m concerned about the militarization of everything, from line deputies to animal control. I deplore the explosion of SWAT use and how it’s far too often the first option rather than the last, as it should be. I despise that many problems which used to be, and still could be, solved with a phone call, or a simple knock on the door, result in breaking out the big trucks and full-autos.
Make no mistake, those capabilities have a place and time. But flaunting that stuff every chance you get is nothing more than conditioning of the public mindset. That’s our collective fault; the people don’t speak up, and say “enough.”

Once upon a time, a former Sheriff here in Loudoun got way too deep into this stuff. In addition to TWO armored wheeled vehicles (European no less) we had an armored forklift. There were a lot of extenuating circumstances, but I’m convinced all that stuff made plenty of Loudouner’s uncomfortable, and that Sheriff was sent packing by the people.

Though my parents were former LE, they were extremely firm in preserving their rights and protections. Exactly like your folks instilled: no one entered the house without paperwork. Even better was to address them as soon as they entered the property. Respectful, yet professional.
Don’t lump me in as a patsy, because us kids were not to tell bad jokes, or disrespect the sheriff. We had lines and were required to stay within them. That’s not giving anybody a free pass, just the way our parents raised us.

At the end of the day, when we really really need help, we ain’t calling the local hippie commune, or the meth house… We’re calling the deputies, the troopers, or a police officer, because (at least here) they’re coming a’ running. For that reason and others, they have my respect. This is exactly the very reason why it is so important to have The People in charge of law enforcement, vice, a bunch of swarmy polticans, as exhibited above.

What was Grannies thing with Military?

I have no idea what it is with P-Ville PD. I don’t know the issues. Alarming though. I guess it’ll all come out in the wash soon. I’ve read some comments. I’ve debated with those claiming to be LCSD, mostly over the issue of People controlled Sheriff (me) VS. Pol-controlled police force (them). I think alot of that is personal. I get it.

Me and you, AFF, are far more alike than you think. Even if that makes your toes curl. At least you can be reasonable.

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